


Slipping Through the Cracks

by sleepdeprivedidiot



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, OT8, changbin owns a repair shop, felix is a disaster who probably trusts people too easily, found family AU except that bit is true irl too, inspired by i am you (the music video)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27631891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepdeprivedidiot/pseuds/sleepdeprivedidiot
Summary: "Hello?"Changbin jumps at the deep voice he's absolutely never heard before that's coming from the store. He's in his workspace soldering a connection on a motherboard, and as he startles, his hand slips and he drops solder on the board."Motherfucker," he says, and scrambles to fix his mistake."Anyone in here?" the same voice calls again."We're closed," Changbin yells back. He knows it won't do anything to help, but he likes to remain optimistic. Then he remembers the thunderstorm outside and feels a little pity for the stranger. "Hold on, I'll be there in a second."True to his word, as soon as Changbin manages to clean up the board, he opens the door into the store. And then he can't help but stare, because standing at the door in his store is a boy who looks not a day older than Jisung or Seungmin, with dripping wet hair, dirt on his face and bloodstains on his shirt."Uh," Changbin says, intelligently.
Relationships: Lee Felix/Seo Changbin
Comments: 11
Kudos: 44





	Slipping Through the Cracks

Felix is lost.

He's not sure how he ended up here - following the side of an abandoned road in what must be the outskirts of Seoul, surrounded by scarce patches of hay and sun dried mud. He'd been cycling home from work, sweaty and tired from his shift at the store, but somewhere along the way he must've taken a wrong turn. The way should've been simple, he's cycled it a million times, but- _well_. Now he's lost, utterly and completely _lost_ , and there's not a building in sight.

He sighs and is about to turn back when his bike starts trembling, trips on nothing and sends Felix flying across the air. He lands on his arm - _ow_ \- and scrunches up on himself on instinct.

"Ow, ow, _fuck_ ," he mutters to himself as he gets back on his feet and observes the damage. His shirt definitely has seen better days - it's covered in dirt, and the left sleeve is torn and starting to get bloody. He can move his arm despite the pain that immediately shoots up when he does so, so nothing seems to be broken, but he knows he’s going to have a nasty bruise. His eyes scan the roadside before landing on his bike, and he curses aloud.

The bike, lying on the side of the road, is _ruined_. One of the tires is bent into a shape that vaguely resembles a three-dimensional infinity symbol, and the chain is somehow tangled into the other one. There’s no way he’ll be able to ride the bike again.

Felix checks his phone for the time, but finds that it's dead, too. He sighs and looks up at the sky. The sun is getting pretty low and he feels like he’s cycled for _hours_ \- there's no way he’ll get back home before midnight. His shoulders sag in defeat as he picks up the bike and starts walking back to the direction he came from.

He's walked for maybe fifteen minutes when he hears distant engine noises from behind. He turns around and squints at the setting sun until he spots a vague car-looking shape in the distance, coming his way. He quickly scrambles to the side of the road, dragging the bike with him.

Once the vehicle approaches, Felix realises it's an old, rusty, light cargo truck, with dusty teal paint chipping off the sides and the open bed full of discarded appliances and electronics and car parts. Felix spots a whole freezer without a door, and only then does he realize that the truck has stopped.

The driver's side window creaks open and a man with curly, honey blonde hair leans out. He looks young; he can't be more than a few years older than Felix, but something about his face makes Felix think he's more mature than a normal, carefree twenty-something-year-old should be.

He's wearing a gray hoodie and gloves with oilstans and dirt on them. He's frowning at the sight of Felix, worried but not judging, and kills the engine.

"Hey, everything alright?"

Felix snorts. He's covered in road dust and bloodstains, his clothes are torn and he's dragging a wrecked bicycle on some road in the middle of nowhere - nothing about his situation is even remotely 'alright'. He gives the guy the benefit of the doubt, though, and just shrugs.

The man says, "Ah", and nods in understanding. "It's going to take you ages," he says, eyeing at Felix's bike. "To get back like that." Felix shrugs again. It's not ideal, but it's not like he's got a lot of options, either. He's about to say just that, but the stranger is faster and asks, not unkindly, "You want a ride?"

Felix looks up to him, gaping a little. It takes a few seconds to get his voice to work, and he stutters, "Oh, y-yeah, um... that would be... nice?" He cringes internally for his accent coming out, something that usually only happens when he's nervous or taken off guard.

The man looks at him a bit funny and says, "Weird question but, you happen to have ever lived in Australia?"

"Yeah," Felix says. "I came here two years ago. Sorry, my Korean isn't really that good yet."

 _"Dude!"_ the stranger exclaims. "No way!", and that's very definitely English, what the fuck, and- "Where'd you live?"

"Uh, Sydney?" Felix is _very confused_ by this turn of events, but the stranger says,

"Mate, no way, me too!" and his entire face lights up.

"Wait, for real?"

"Yeah! I moved around a lot as a kid though but I went to school in Sydney before moving here, that was, six years ago? Wow, It's been so long I'm losing count."

Felix won't lie, hearing someone else speak his language - his mothertongue - for the first time in- in years, what the hell- is making him feel strange things. He's grinning now, too, and he's subconsciously taken a few steps closer.

The man then says, "Oh, right, shit, my name's Bang Chan- or Chris, whichever you wanna use. Here, hold on, I'll help you with your bike", and he opens the cabin door and jumps down to the road.

"Thanks," Felix says. "Oh, uh, I'm Felix. Nice to meet you."

Chan flashes him a blinding smile and carefully tosses the bike onto the bed of the truck. "Yeah. So," he says. "Where to?"

Felix tells him the adress and Chan frowns.

"Wow. That's like, an hour from here _by car_. How'd you end up here on a _bike_?"

"I dunno, that's like, the whole point of being lost. If I knew I'd tell you", Felix says, a wry smile tugging on the corners of his lips.

"Ok, well, I'll drop you off somewhere nearby. I'd drive you all the way, but..." Chan pats the side of the truck with a tight-lipped smile. "She's pretty big for the narrow city streets. 'S that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Felix says. He has no idea how he'll get the bike home with him or how he'll go to work from now on - shit, he'll need to get the bike repaired, won't he - but he's not about to say no to Chan who's willing to help him at all.

Chan smiles at him and opens the driver's side door. "Hop right in then, I'll set up the GPS and get us all ready."

***

The first raindrops fall against the windshield approximately ten minutes after Chan starts driving. They're followed by a few more, until suddenly it's pouring. Chan sets the windshield wipers faster, but even that only provides him a few milliseconds of clarity at a time before the glass is covered in water again.

C'mon," Chan mutters under his breath.

Thunder rumbles somewhere nearby.

"Fuck," Chan says with meaning. He glances at Felix. "I can't drive in this weather- the rain's fine, but I've got electronics at the back and," he hits a pothole and Felix hears something fall over. " _Shit_. If lightning strikes, I'll have a truckload of electronics on _fire_. I normally wouldn't ask, but," Chan swerves right to avoid another plothole, "I run a repair shop with a couple of friends maybe five minutes from here. It's not much, but it's like, warm and dry. I'm dropping these off there anyway, so. You're welcome to stay for as long as you need. I can give you a ride home once the rain eases a bit. That sound okay?"

And, ok, it's not like Felix really has a choice anyway. But even if the situation was different even if it wasn't thundering like crazy, he feels like he'd still take up the offer. During the little time they've spent together, Felix has felt more at home than in the whole two years he's lived in Seoul, maybe because of the familiar accent or maybe because that's just how Chan is, chatty, smiley and comfortable. It feels easy to say, "Yeah, okay", and smile at Chan.

Chan takes a right turn at the next intersection and soon the scenery - blurred by a curtain of heavy rain and dim light - starts to change. They're now entering some kind of a neighborhood with a few tall, empty buildings scattered around the road, the silhouettes of high-end Seoul apartments in the background. In the middle of a thunderstorm, the place looks haunted. A flash of light and then thunder rumbles again, this time louder.

This is it, Felix thinks. _I'm going to get murdered tonight. Tell my family I love them-_

Chan takes a left turn, passes a gas station, and turns to the driveway of a relatively small, two-storey concrete building lit by a single flickering neon sign that says _REPAIRS_ in thin letters. He stops the car in front of the shop and says, "Changbin should still be up. I'm gonna go drop this stuff off in the garage but you can go up ahead, the door's open. I'll follow up soon, just need to get all this stuff inside."

Felix nods and gets out of the cabin into the heavy rain. From up close, the storefront looks even more run-down than before. The gray paint on the concrete is chipping off in big chunks, the roof is drooping on one side and all the windows are dark save from one small rectangle upstairs. The garage must be in the back since that's where Chan disappeared to, but nothing about the storefront save for the tiny neon sign suggests that this is a place where people come to for repairs.

Felix walks up to the door, takes a deep breath and pulls it open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm posting for the first time in two whole years for a completely different fandom and i'm honestly pretty excited for this one. i've started on chapter one and i've got a lot more planned so i might eventually actually finish this one lmao
> 
> anyway repairman changbin lives in my head rent free that's all hope you enjoyed this :D


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